So, stopped in at the local church thrift store this afternoon. Out on the display floor covered in art glass was a Stromberg-Carlson Model RP-723C marked as "not working". Maple cabinet in relatively good shape with all badges, knobs, and grill cloth in place - with listed price of $45. After all the special discounts the out the door price was $21.

Seems like I keep finding these interesting systems. As with my previous Stromberg-Carlson find very little information is on the web for this model. I will take a look inside this weekend and post pictures.

Anyone familiar with this model? My earlier find in walnut is larger with more of a MCM look.

Overall the unit is compact and the cabinet in very good condition. I think this was an "entry level" model based on the unimpressive speakers. I have started working on the turn table and power amp. In both cases it is clear someone has been in before me leaving poor soldering and loose parts around. One of the output transformers has been replaced with a substitute that does not match the original. The tuner/control pre-amp seems unmolested. The amplifier power fuse is blown and the canned capacitor seems gone.

At this point I am undecided if I want to repair the electronics. On the positive side the amp is not complicated and the turntable seems intact - just needing the normal cleaning. What seems to me the problem is the speakers.

Unless there is obvious damage, what makes you suspect the speakers as being bad? Speakers are pretty tough and are seldom found bad. Typically, problems blamed on speakers are actually electronic in nature. You don't specify, but I assume this is a tube unit. With the proper schematic, it should not be difficult to repair the original electronics. You may find that an attempt at changing components will yield less than desirable results. We can talk you thru repairs to the electronics if you would care to try repairing the original. Good luck

The speakers are not broken. They are just simply cheap mounted directly on the front panel. It is a tube unit I can easily repair that based on my other SC system will should good with the right speakers.

Hi Chris, it is a different design than I have encountered. It is very rugged with two idlers - one for the turntable and one for the changer/return mechanism. The only plastic is the tone arm. I have managed to free all the frozen pivot points and shafts fairly easily. It now runs but shuts off when the tone arm drops. What is strange is it is obvious the limit switch has been modified I suspect to replace a switch assembly previously. It looks like the switch was moved from under the base plate, toothpicks were used as shims, and a new hole drilled to run the wires to the top plate mount (with no grommet). As with the amp the work was not done in a very good way. The cartridge is intact - an Astic Model 170 - and will require a new needle.

I like the look and the cosmetic condition of the turntable. As the rough opening will take a more modern version I may just drop something else in if the issues with turntable prove more troublesome. Hopefully I can find some information on the turntable to correct the strange repairs.

After more reading the shut off is intentional and unique to this design. I don't have a clue why the switch was moved from the original location. I think I will move the switch back and see what happens.

The changer was made by Glaser-Steers. Some models had a "Speed Minder" position that would allow records of different speeds to be intermixed. Also, the turntable would pause at the beginning of the change cycle and would start up again once the tone arm was on the record.

The parents of a friend I went to H.S. with had a '59 Hoffman with the Glaser-Steers changer. I remember the pause for the change cycle worked well except when playing 78s. If there was any slippage between records, it would take several seconds to get up to speed.

Moving the switch to the proper location reversed it for NO to NC in the direction of the lever pin travel. I guess in the past someone replaced the switch with one that was opposite to the operation of this switch - hence the reason for moving the switch to the top of the plate. The use of tooth pick for shims was at least imaginative. Well, i will place back to the (im)proper location with some other form of shims.